If you are like me, you love well produced electronic music.

Honestly, electronic music has been a sanctuary for me over the last few years. It’s helped me to get through hard times because it, with its multifaceted ability to elicit the whole spectrum of human emotion, has the ability to both relax me and pump me up, depending on what I happen to need at the time.

And one of my most beloved artists in electronic music lately has been the YouTube sensation, POGO.

If you’re unfamiliar with his work, I highly recommend you check it out.

These tracks are some favorites of mine.

Boy & Bear | Pogo

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Nicey Nicey | Pogo

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Forget | Pogo

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After consuming his work over a certain period of time, you’ll start to notice some peculiarities about POGO. One of those things in the seemingly inappropriate combination of identity: that an electronic remixer of Disney content is also a public conservative.

Here is is on Louder with Crowder having a debate about “rape culture” with Ian Black

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To me, after a little bit of exposure, I find it easy to suppose that POGO is somewhere on the autistic spectrum. He has these sort of not-funny responses to questions that he answers with a very dry and stoic expression.

I also happen to think he’s rather “naughty” in that he seems to not care too much what people think about him. It reminds me of troll culture from the early 2000’s, where you would just kind of say things to see if it would get a rise out of people.

So, with that preface, let’s talk about what recently happened.

The “Homophobic” statement

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Yes, POGO said a very “homophobic” thing.

I put “homophobic” in quotes because if you knew anything about this guy you would know that the video in which he makes the statement is filled with glaring inconsistencies (he, for instance, expresses glee about incoming terrorist cells, something that he has staunchly opposed). It, for those with no sense of humor, is what’s known as “satire”:

Satire is a genre of literature, and sometimes graphic and performing arts, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society.

wiki

But let me give you a bit of context before showing you the video.

CONTEXT:

Many people have asked about POGO’s YouTube username, which is Fagottron.

Now, one of the main things to consider, in my opinion, is the date this channel was made:

Why is this important? Well, because POGO was born on the 26th of July, 1988 wiki, which would mean he was 19 at when he created this channel.

I’m sure of two things.

1. He was not expecting that his channel would wind up with 722,000 subscribers and 200,000,000 views.
2. He - an already impish and naughty young man - was quite immature at that time and thought the word “Fagottron” was funny. Which it is.

I can remember how the Internet was back then. At that time I had created a joke group on MySpace called “Modern Cannibalism” because I had a really dark sense of humor.

That’s just how it is. It was 2007 and things were very, very, VERY different back then than they are now.

But people have asked him about his username, so in 2016 he decided to make a satirical video to explain it (which I am not even sure he actually posted himself), but this user uploaded it for what I’m sure is objective posterity:

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So, yeah, it sounds terrible. Super anti-gay. Hateful, even. But when you understand the context you get that it’s a joke. Similar to the Count Dankula stuff: I don’t have to like the joke or think it’s funny in order to understand that it’s not intended seriously.

Should he have been more clear about the context upfront? I don’t know… maybe, in this day and age. See, people are very eager to take things out of context and interpret them to fit their own narrative, and POGO gave his enemies a perfect weapon to attack him… which they did.

• Disney remixer Pogo can’t walk back his homophobic comments on YouTube - The Verge

Bertke can claim that people who know him know he’s “just being an asshole,” but it’s a throwaway excuse that cannot be taken at face value. There is no good faith discussion to be had with someone who trivializes the murders of a marginalized community. His insistence that the original video is being taken out of context is a textbook example of claiming plausible deniability, one where anyone who is frightened, hurt, or offended by his comments is simply missing a joke. Bertke does a piss-poor job convincing anyone the joke was worthwhile in the first place.

• Australian Remix Artist Pogo Backtracks On Homophobic Comments - Music Feeds

He also addressed the accusations of sexism and homophobia, saying that he attracts a lot of people of the opposite sex and a lot of people in his life are gay. insert eye roll here.

• Disney remixer Pogo criticised for lengthy homophobic rant - Mashable
  This article posts a series of tweets followd by “YouTube has been contacted for comment”, which is code word for “We are trying to get POGO taken off of YouTube”.

Thoughts

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It’s clear to me that this was a bad joke gone wrong.

In one of those articles it even mentions that it was a joke to confuse people in the style of Andy Kaufman.

Kaufman is one of the most misunderstood figures in comedy history. In this video Tony Danza goes over how difficult it was to understand Kaufman and his strange behavior:

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So, do I think POGO has a problem with homosexuals? I don’t know. I think his explanation is perfectly plausible and should be taken at face value, because he’s done this sort of thing before. And unlike those who would use context as an excuse to leverage a situation politically, I’m more than willing to take people at face value until or unless they’ve convinced me not to, and POGO says it was not intended seriously.

So I believe him.

I’m also the kind of person who doesn’t easily allow the personal feelings or opinions of a content creator affect my ability to enjoy their work objectively. So even if all of the things in that video he said were 100% serious and true (which they’re not), it would not be possible for me to stop seeing the objective beauty in his musical work.

What do you think?

Follow me @shayne